I’ve always wanted to be a part of a “Model U.N.” but it didn’t happen during my youth.
Everything in this thread will cover what we think happens during a CFL Board of Governors meeting. This includes marketing ideas, rule changes, ratings, attendance and possibly a night of playing cards/smoking cigars and drinking heavily.
Most people here are familiar with my ideas about CFL marketing. I’m a firm believer in putting “boots on the ground”. Teams are already doing some of this but I’d like to them to go the extra mile.
Idea #1 Appearance Requests - Winnipeg Blue Bombers
You’ll see here that the Bombers charge $200 per hour for corporate events when they request a player appearance. However, only players that are living in the area are eligible. The problem with that is players return home during the off-season etc.
What I would like to see happen is a) each team expand their marketing area, b) players that are living in those areas during the offseason can get hired by the CFLPA and then the team gets the bill, and c) retired players would also be eligible to be hired as well. Retired players would mostly work with high school & college level football players during the CFL season.
The CFLPA should have a list of cities that are visited every year and another list that is visited once every five years. On average every team would only have to pay for one visit per month. However, if cities are close together then they could potentially be done on the same weekend. The biggest limitation I would put on it is that it should be within 1,000 km of current CFL franchise locations.
Idea #2. During the day players do community service type activities but at night they can help judge open mic nights or karaoke contests. The winner would go on to face other cities, CFL merch can be handed out and a presence in the community would be strengthened. The ultimate winner would win a trip to a CFL game where they would sing the national anthem. Obviously the social media department would showcase any original musical pieces on their website if a copyright deal could be negotiated.
I would also like to see all the high school choirs in the area participate in anthem singing. It’s a fairly big field and it can probably fit a few thousand. Why? Hindsight being 20/20, most musicians I know turn out to enjoy drinking alcohol later in their adult life. When I was in high school, I know for a fact that the band teacher had a bottle of whiskey in his desk. It couldn’t hurt the CFL to merge these two worlds in my opinion.
Idea #3. CFL has done better with reaching out to immigrants. We saw the Edmonton Elks partner with a Punjabi radio station in the summer. I haven’t seen any team try and get into the ethnic restaurants though. Everybody likes to eat and if someone has to make a Samosa shaped like a football then so be it.
Idea #4 “The Road to Expansion”. In my opinion no community is dying to have a CFL expansion team in their city. This is somewhat tied to the expanded marketing area idea. The CFL has to put in a good foundation first or it’ll turn out to be a “House of Cards”.
In stage one I would want a year round presence in a targeted area. The problem is that everyone has different ideas about what those areas should be. I’ve heard people say that there should be expansion teams in Europe and Mexico etc. I’m going to be conservative and pick the eastern part of North America but everyone can make their own list.
In stage two, I would want 9 cities picked out for training camps.
In stage three, there should be pre-season games, a celebrity to pump up the game should be chosen and at the end of the year, a city shall be eliminated
Stage four (regular season games) should only happen if someone can guarantee x amount of dollars so the team wouldn’t lose any money compared to what it would have made in their own home stadium.
Stage five: review all the facts of the case. Is this city viable for the CFL? If not then start the process over again with some different cities. If it is then start thinking about the search for twelve teams over the next decade.
I’d like to hear everyone’s ideas about growing the game.
Next is the survey portion of the thread.
The following stadiums are within 200 km of Philadelphia.
Where is the best place to host a CFL neutral site game?
- Kutztown, PA - Andre Reed Stadium - Capacity 5.6k (Expandable to 10k?)
- Millersville, PA - Biemesderfer Stadium - 4.3k (Expandable to 10k?)
- Bethlehem, PA - BASD Stadium - 16k
- Villanova, PA - Villanova Stadium - 12.5k
- Philadelphia, PA - Franklin Field - 78.2k
- Allentown, PA - J. Birney Crum Stadium - 15k
- Easton, PA - Fisher Stadium - 13.1k
- Ocean City, NJ - Carey Stadium - 4k (expandable to 10k?)
- Wilmington, DE - Abessinio Stadium - 5k (expandable to 10k?)
- West Long Branch, NJ - Kessler Stadium - 4k (expandable to 10k?)
- Jersey City, NJ - Cochrane Stadium - 4k (expandable to 10k?)
- New York, NY - Lawrence A. Wien Stadium - 17k
The following stadiums are within 200 km of Pittsburgh.
Where is the best city to host a CFL neutral site game?
- Slippery Rock, PA - Mihalik Thompson Stadium - 10k
- Indiana, PA - George P. Miller Stadium - 11k
- Washington, PA - Cameron Stadium - 5k (expandable to 10k?)
- California, PA - Adamson Stadium - 6.5k (expandable to 10k?)
- Cumberland, MD - Greenway Avenue Stadium - 15k
The following stadiums are within 200 km of Cincinnati, OH.
Where is the best city to host a CFL neutral site game?
- Dayton, OH - Welcome Stadium - 11k
- Morehead, KY - Jayne Stadium - 10k
The following stadiums are within 200 km of Cleveland, OH.
Where is the best city to host a CFL neutral site game?
- University Heights, OH - Don Shula Stadium - 5.4k (expandable to 10k?)
- Parma, OH - Robert M. Boulton Stadium - 11.2k
The following stadiums are within 200 km of Detroit, MI.
Where is the best city to host a neutral site game?
- Hillsdale, MI - Frank Muddy Waters Stadium - 8.5k (expandable to 10k?)
- Ypsilanti, MI - Rynearson Stadium - 30.2k
- Windsor, ON - Alumni Stadium - 2k (expandable to 10k?)
- London, ON - Western Alumni Stadium 8k (expandable to 10k?)
The following stadiums are within 200 km of Chicago.
Where is the best city to host a CFL neutral site game?
- Joliet, IL - Joliet Memorial Stadium - 10k
- Naperville, IL - Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium - 5.5k (expandable to 10k?)
- Valparaiso, IN - Brown Field - 5k (expandable to 10k?)
In a hypothetical situation where the CFL has done proper marketing in all these cities for a minimum of 2 full years, where is the worst location to host a CFL pre-season neutral site game?
- Quebec City
- Philadelphia area
- Pittsburgh area
- Cleveland area
- Cincinnati area
- Columbus area
- Detroit area
- Grand Rapids, MI
- Chicago area
Which celebrity should represent the Philadelphia area?
- Kevin Hart
- Donovan McNabb
- Rick Tocchet
- Charles Barkley
- Scott Rolen
Which celebrity should represent the Pittsburgh area?
- Mario Lemieux
- Ben Roethlisberger
- Rich Gossage
- Jeff Goldblum
- Mark Cuban
Which celebrity should represent the Cleveland area?
- Arsenio Hall
- Halle Berry
- Joe Thomas
- Roberto Alomar
- Shaquille O’Neale
Which celebrity should represent the Columbus area?
- Josh Radnor
- Alana De La Garza
- Guy Fieri
- Simone Biles
- Sergei Federov
Which celebrity should represent the Cincinnati area?
- Nick Lachey
- Steven Spielberg
- Heather Mitts
- Ken Griffey Jr.
- Terrell Owens
Which celebrity should represent the Detroit area?
- Justin Verlander
- Dennis Rodman
- Steve Yzerman
- Barry Sanders
- Eminem
Which celebrity should represent Grand Rapids?
- Gillian Anderson
- El Debarge
- Adina Howard
- Floyd Mayweather Jr.
- Jamahal Hill
Which celebrity should represent the Chicago area?
- Scottie Pipen
- Mike Singletary
- Doug Wilson
- Jennifer Hudson
- Harrison Ford
Which celebrity should represent Quebec City?
- Emmanuelle Chriqui
- William Shatner
- Pom Klementieff
- Emily Hampshire
- Joe Sakic
Which CFL franchise(s) should host a neutral site game in 2025 during the regular season?
- Toronto Argonauts - 9 games below 18k
- Montreal Alouettes - 7 games below 19k
- Calgary Stampeders - 3 games below 20k
- Ottawa REDBLACKS - 8 games below 20k
- Edmonton Elks - 1 game below 20k
- All of the above
- None of the above
- Toronto and Montreal only
- Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa only
- Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Ottawa only
Which CFL rule should be reviewed?
- The rouge
- 3 vs 4 downs
- Field size
- CFL timing rules
- Last touch gets possession if fumbled out of bounds
- Dribble punt
- The waggle
- 1 yard neutral zone
- One division
- Move Grey Cup to Saturday
- Adjust/remove the Ops Cap
- Less borderline calls from the referees to increase game flow
- None of the above
This concludes the survey.
etc. but love to “escape” to the south. I get it. Ok what’s the deal people, Canadians to keep their Canadian citizenship have to have an address in Canada for 6 months of year and pay taxes… ect don’t know the latest Canadian legalities on this as I can barely afford to keep in my home now in Canada on a low retirement income, thankfully our little house is paid for though. With the cost of food, let me tell ya, going to Shoppers on Thursdays for seniors discount for my milk and eggs at 20 percent off helps keep the wife and me in our home.
